{"id":499,"date":"2025-03-17T16:07:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T16:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/?p=499"},"modified":"2025-03-18T19:57:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:57:21","slug":"catalonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/catalonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Catalonia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you like to go inside the church?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned my head at the heavily accented voice. It belonged to a man, in his 70s, fit in body and with a weathered face, and curious eyes. I wasn\u2019t sure what he meant, the church wasn\u2019t open for visitors until 9am. It was a little after 8am. I noticed his umbrella \u2013 it wasn\u2019t raining \u2013 not quite, but it was drizzling, it had been for some time, long enough to get my hair wet as I stood in front of the 15th century Bas\u00edlica de Santa Maria del Pi meaning “Basilica of Saint Mary of the Pine” located in the Gothic quarter in Barcelona, which is the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain. My eyes were transfixed at its Gothic fa\u00e7ade with its life sized sculptures of the 12 apostles. I had been trying to work out who was who, I had recognized Peter with his keys, John because of his youthful looks, and Judas with his eyes averted and & a dagger hidden in his hand. I was consulting Google on my phone to figure out the rest \u2013 why was I doing this? I don\u2019t know, I like to do these things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also like to visit an old European city in the early morning hours, before the hum-drum of life, the noise of the vehicles, and the throngs of people pour in. It is a ritual that I am compelled to undertake at least one or two mornings during my travel. With no semblance of modern life – either visual or aural, and surrounded entirely with historic architecture \u2013 Classical, Gothic, Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Baroque, it is possible to imagine myself as a time-traveler \u2013 albeit from a safe distance; Christianity and especially Catholicism was not known to be kind to Pagans in the 15th century! But given that I wasn\u2019t at any risk of being burnt at the stake as a heretic that morning, I had left Mark catching up on sleep \u2013 something he<\/span> likes to do on his <\/span>vacation \u2013 and slipped out into the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. After an hour of wandering, I had found myself in front of the Basilica caught by its stunning fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you like to go inside the church?\u201d<\/em>, he had asked.

\u201cYes\u201d<\/em>, I found myself answering without the slightest idea of how he was going to manifest his proposition, the large iron gates on the church were firmly shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollow me\u201d <\/em>he said. I did as I was told. He went up to the metal barricade and moved it, then up the stone steps, opened the door and stepped in to the basilica. I was confronted by the beauty of a Gothic church, its dark interior with arches and pillars leading the eyes straight towards the cross at the end of the nave and up towards heaven. There were a handful of people in the basilica already \u2013 they likely worked there. The church wasn\u2019t open to the public yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you here to attend the mass or to see the basilica?\u201d <\/em>he asked. \u201cTo see the basilica\u201d<\/em>, I answered truthfully, I wasn\u2019t standing outside in hopes of attending a mass, I wasn\u2019t even standing outside in hopes of entering the church, I was just standing outside because – well I had been hypnotized – by the quest for perfection in the stone fa\u00e7ade. In the modern world we seem to have connected religion with strife, superstition, dogma, colonialism \u2013 all things true \u2013 but we also seem to have forgotten how religion can be a call for spirituality, for faith, for humility, charity, generosity, compassion.. it offers a connection with the divine and a way to fulfill our deepest longings for meaning and purpose. It is not possible to see the Sistine Chapel, the Last Supper, the Sagrada Familia, or the innumerable churches (and other houses of worship), paintings, frescoes and monasteries across the world without feeling some of this reverence. One doesn’t have to be a Catholic or a Christian to understand or feel this. In every heart the same reverence exists. All one has to do is to recognize when one is in the presence of the sacred and take off ones shoes. I certainly know when to take off mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh then perhaps you should return when the church is open\u201d<\/em> he responded. I almost heard a tinge of disappointment in his voice. I turned to exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a prayer before the church opens, we will be singing in Catalan. \u201cWould you like to join?\u201d<\/em>
\u201cYes. But I am not a Christian.\u201d<\/em>
\u201cWe are all children of the same God. Come.\u201d<\/em>

He took me to a chapel on the right. Another magnificent Gothic chamber. There were 3 priests in the front and a handful of people in the pews. It appeared to me to be a private prayer for the clergy and staff of the basilica.

\u201cMy name is Antonio. What is your name?\u201d
\u201cSwati\u201d.
\u201cThat is a beautiful name. Where are you from?\u201d
\u201cNew York.\u201d
\u201cAh wonderful\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He handed me a small prayer book. And opened the page to MARTES – meaning TUESDAY in Spanish.

\u201cWe will be singing from this. You just follow what I do, ok?\u201d<\/em>
Ok.
The priests spoke a few words but mostly they sang – alongside the attendees, their voices rising up to the tall pillars of the Gothic chamber. I became acutely aware that I was participating in a ritual that had been ongoing for hundreds of years. It was a remarkable experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prayer finished. I turned to Antonio \u201cThat was beautiful\u201d<\/em> I said.
\u201cYes. Yes. It is beautiful. That is why I wanted you to attend . \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He led me out of the prayer room. \u201cI like New York, I would love to go. But now with your new president Mr. Trump, oh no no no. I will not be going for at least a few years\u201d.<\/em> He faked a shiver and laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stepped out of the basilica, and saw people in the square rushing for work, a loud scooter passed in the distance, I was back in the 21st century. I looked up at the apostles and being closer to the sculpture recognized St. Joseph; the carpenter holding a right angle. And right above me was the most famous carpenter of all, Jesus – looking down at me – almost smiling. I recalled Antonio\u2019s last words as I thanked him for inviting me in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was my pleasure, Swati from New York. This is my gift to you – from Catalonia.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I smiled back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swati Srivastava is an immigrant and a multi award-winning writer, director, and voiceover artist.<\/em> A filmmaker & storyteller, Swati turns ideas into experience. She is also the Director of Visual Media for a national non-profit and an environmentalist.<\/em> She can be reached via Linkedin<\/a> and swati@TiredAndBeatup.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like to visit an old European city in the early morning hours, before the hum-drum of life, the noise of the vehicles, and the throngs of people pour in. It is a ritual that I am compelled to undertake at least one or two mornings during my travel. With no semblance of modern life – either visual or aural, and surrounded entirely with historic architecture \u2013 Classical, Gothic, Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Baroque, it is possible to imagine myself as a time-traveler \u2013 albeit from a safe distance; Christianity and especially Catholicism was not known to be kind to Pagans in the 15th century! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"chat","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-chat","hentry","category-reflections","post_format-post-format-chat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tiredandbeatup.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}